Empire of Shadows
by Dingirverse
Summary: A triple crossover story involving: Vampire Wars saga, Zombie Hunters, and my Dingirverse, and follows the events after the game, 'Symphony of Darkness.' Fredrick, Sara, Matos, and others, find themselves in a deadly battle for survival against a group of monsters seeking to create an Empire and rule over the lowly humans. A backup of a novel I'm editing as my laptop died.


_A/N: This is an official crossover between Vampire Wars Saga, Zombie Hunters, and my Dingirverse._ _An unedited version is available on amazon, lulu, barnes &noble, and most other online retailers with at least two Japanese style comics included, under the title: **Vampire Attack - Empire of Shadows**. __Unfortunately my laptop died and I lost a lot of data, including the sequel to this, so I am having to restart a number of edits and new stories, I am backing them up on this site until I republish them in full. If you like this story, please submit your reviews on the book selling sites mentioned above as well, as it will help us with potential future sales, as they are very much needed. (A struggling writer, what an un **usual** cliche.) I may also share this link with publishing agents, as it gets annoying and expensive submitting paper copies that you're bound to redraft and thereby make useless for further submissions when they send it back with a no. In any case, please enjoy this story for the time it is on this site._

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 **CHAPTER ONE:**

 **THE FORMER RIPPER**

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 _Location: Cult Complex, Hamburg, Germany_

The police had surrounded the compound, armored cars, riot police, snipers, and even aerial support. The cultist's were known to be very dangerous, and never hesitated to kill in pursuit of their goals, they were part of a new religious group that had involved themselves in drug smuggling and gun running. Supposedly they worshipped demons or something along those lines, not that what they believed mattered to the police. It was that they were breaking the law, and were connected to several terrorist attacks on Europe in recent years.

When they had finally tracked their location, somehow they had learned of it, and had kidnapped a number of people to prevent them from immediately storming the place, or risk their execution. Not that the high, thick stone walls and electric fence made that easy anyway. Their helicopter had confirmed several turrets where the cultists were watching, heavily armed with HK-417s. The cultists had fired upon the helicopter, but it had an armored bottom, and had avoided damage.

'What a troublesome situation,' Hans Peter sighed, taking a drag on his cigarette, before stamping it out in irritation. He hated it when uninvolved civilians were dragged into danger like this. He was a police captain, and currently in charge of this mess, but his superiors had given him orders to hold after the initial standoff, where they brought a child to the wall, a Heckler and Koch P30 handgun pressed into her temple, threatening to kill her if they passed the electric fence that ran the perimeter.

Currently they were waiting on a specialist for assistance in resolving this, but short of attacking multiple points and hoping to get to the hostages first, or tricking them with false negotiations, Hans didn't see what one person could do. However one order sent ahead was for them to turn off any spotlights at the front of the property, so this specialist probably planned to sneak in, but such a method could easily turn into a bloodbath for the hostages.

'Is that him?' Hans wondered as he saw car being waved through, as it drew closer, he saw that it was a black Rolls-Royce Sweptail, damn things were worth in the region of eleven million euros. However this specialist was, they weren't directly connected to the police, nobody on their kind of payroll could afford that.

The car pulled up to the right of the gate, placing it in a blind spot for those on the inside, and then out climbed out of the Sweptail, was a dark haired man, pale skinned, well dressed, but styled in the older Victorian style. The man's name was Fredrick Drake, and he was a vampire.

Fredrick took a moment to observe the compound, ignoring the looks of confusion regarding his attire, which was out of place for this era, however he secretly took pleasure in it, and no matter what he wore, he cut quite a dashing figure in any garb or era.

As Fredrick approached the Police Captain, whom he had been informed of by Veronica, was named Hans Peter. He noticed the man's eyes flicker to his subtle flowing movements, his skin, which was pale, probably noticing his lack of blinking or breathing too, which for their kind was optional. All they needed was blood. But how interesting, it seemed this man knew of them as real beings, rather that myths and legends, the human became even more tense, if that was even possible, hand itching for the small gun, hidden up his sleeve. Fredrick briefly extended his mind to Hans's to confirm his query, and indeed the man knew what they were, he had encountered several fledglings in his youth, and had been cleared for the truth and usual threatening by the council.

Neither caused the other harm fortunately. They shook hands briefly.

"Vampire," Hans nodded politely, but his eyes were cold.

"Human," Fredrick replied with a vaguely amused smile. "Your superiors requested the clan's help through the Council, I trust my species won't be an issue?"

Hans relaxed ever so slightly, but his guard remained up, as any good warrior's should.

"Yes... Well let me bring you up to speed on the situation," Hans said finally, letting go, and taking a few steps back. He then went on to explain the situation, that there were approximately forty known residents inside, all armed, and ten hostages that needed rescuing, assuming they were still all alive.

'How interesting,' Fredrick thought, faintly sensing the diluted demonic power that a turned vampire like himself possessed. There were vampires inside, at least one anyway. It wouldn't be safe to take a team with him until that issue was dealt with. Unless blessed, bullets did very little damage to the undead, it certainly hurt, but healed very quickly, as long as they had blood and demonic power to fuel that healing.

"There are some of my kind among the cultists, Captain," Fredrick informed the Captain, after the man had finished his report. "This complicates matters."

Hans frowned, gun toting zealots were bad enough. "How can you tell?"

"Devils, demons, and monsters, even turned varieties like us have a certain energy, call it an aura about us," Fredrick replied. "We can always sense when our kind are near."

Hans nodded, excepting the information. "What would you have us do?"

Fredrick considered it, he was no great strategist, but he did have a lot of experience and confidence in his skills. "Double up on snipers, and mid ranged support, and have each of them guarded to prevent them being potentially picked off. I doubt that will happen, but better to be over-prepared. Reinforce the perimeter as much as possible, even the walls with no visible entry/exit points, if I am not successful, we might have jumpers."

Hans understood what the Vampire meant, rather than desperation or suicide, a Vampire could easily survive a jump or fall that would splatter a human.

"Anything else?"

Follow me as far as the gate, with however is unassigned, I may require suppression fire when I sneak in."

"So you intend to go alone," Hans said with some disbelief, almost forgetting how tough vampires were.

"Indeed, I will sneak in and pick them off one by one from the shadows," Fredrick replied. "Give me one of your communicators, I'll contact you if I need support or if the situation changes." Hans handed one over.

Later, once all of Fredrick's suggestions for soldier placements were complete, Hans and several others, were crouched on either side of the barred gate, weapons at the ready.

Fredrick gave them a brief nod, and seemed to disappear into the shadows as he easily cleared the walls, keeping to the darkness, and despite their best efforts, they soon lost track of him. Their only clue to his location was when the actual door to the the compound, slowly opened and shut. He was in.

Fredrick pulled out two Sig Sauer P226 handguns with laser scopes from under his cape and walked forward into the compound, they were waiting for him. Bullets sizzled through their, but being a vampire gave Fredrick super fast reflexes, he evaded the bullets with amazing precision, his arms raised, the scope's saving precious milliseconds on aiming, he aimed for the heart with each shot, never missing. The rounds were all blessed silver, a waste, as none of them were his kin, but he couldn't take the time to switch cartridges for normal rounds with so many to kill, and vampire's mixed among them.

Emptying the entrance and connecting hallways of life, Fredrick slipped back into the shadows, and over the course of the next ten minutes, he killed any cultist he encountered, dragging them into the shadows, snapping their necks or draining them. Eventually he found himself in a study or sorts, desks littered with ancient looking scrolls, he unrolled a few, not recognizing the the language. He did however recognize the banner on the wall, the symbol of Nyarlathotep, a Dark God spawned from primordial evils that existed at the edge of the universe, kept at bay by the God of creation from worlds containing life, but they would send the Crawling Chaos to act as their first attack, as it could hide its magic from Yahweh to an extent, and every so often they succeeded and erased a sentient species from the universe. However upon reaching Earth, Nyarlathotep failed repeatedly, most recently against Fredrick's own master, though he and Kimberlain certainly had contributed, they had thrown him into the very portal he had opened to let his kin into the world.

'I suppose I should take one, the council might be interested in this,' Fredrick mused, picking up a scroll, and placing it inside one of his inside jacket pocket.

After this, Fredrick continued his search, periodically assassinating, and eventually finding them in a massive dining hall. All the hostages, still alive, but several showed signs of heavy abuse. Most were adults, some unfortunately were children, they were all huddled together against one wall, while the cultists, these wearing their official garb, red robes, patrolled the hall, holding rifles, ready to react, ready to kill.

Fredrick slowly snuck in closer, keeping the shadows. He could sense another vampire nearby, now he was inside their territory he could tell that it was only a single vampire, and definitely not a pure-blood like his master, Countess Sara. Something he could definitely handle, but there was the faintest scent of others, but they were no longer here.

"Those damn cops are still here," one of the cultist's growled with irritation. "Kill one of the hostages and throw their corpse to them, we'll show them that we aren't to be dealt with so leisurely."

"Can I play with it first?" another asked, twirling a nasty looking knife, and wearing a far nastier expression.

"Fine, but don't take too long."

Fredrick cursed under his breath.

The Vladimir clan vampire watched with anger at the hostages distress, as some of the robed men selected a young teenage girl from among the group, one man rose to stop them, but was shot in the shoulder for his trouble, he collapsed with a scream. She was dragged to her feet and taken to a room to the left side of the hall, the other hostages despaired at what had would happen to the young girl, and what was in store for them.

The young girl was tied to a chair, one of the robed men prowled around her with a knife in his hand, its hook end and serrated edge meant that was intended for torture or a particularly nasty death. Frederick soon joined them, hanging from the ceiling with one hand, his nails morphed into elongated claws, in the other he aimed with one of his Sig Sauer P226 handguns.

"What's with the red dot?"

"Oh, shit!"

Fredrick fired upon the one with the knife as he was an immediate threat, the first bullet tore through the top part of his head, the second shot obliterated the heart, blood splattering the walls and covering the hostage in a cascade of blood and brain matter. She froze in shock, her screaming ceased for the moment.

From another entry point, another hooded man entered, he froze briefly upon seeing his fellows murdered, he growled in anger, drawing a similar knife, though with its size, a dagger might be a more appropriate term. The cultist charged at Fredrick, bellowing loudly, "die heretic!"

Fredrick grabbed the cultist's arm, twisting it until the bones broke. "That will be very hard for me to do, seeing as I've died already," Frederick bantered, as he revealed his fangs to the man, ready for the kill.

"Vampire..." was all he was able to say before Fredrick drove his fangs into his neck and greedily drank upon his blood. Fredrick felt his prey's body go limp, and once he was sure the cultist was dead, Fredrick led the drained corpse fall to the floor with a loud thud, and pausing briefly to wipe away the spill from his lips, he turned his attention to the young girl still tied to the chair.

'The poor thing,' he thought, she couldn't have been older than fourteen, far too young to experience this situation. Tears rolled down her face, she stared at him in silence, her mouth gagged to stop the screams, but her fear was thick in the air, and he couldn't blame her, casual murder took some getting use to. Fredrick headed over, keeping his pace slow, he made sure his fangs and other weapons were out of sight, while holding up his arms to show he meant no harm. "Good evening miss, allow me to introduce myself, I am Fredrick Drake. Now I imagine your rather frightened by what you just saw, but please don't scream, as I've got to stop the rest of the people who kidnapped you and the other hostages. Nod if you understand?"

She nodded.

He started to untie the girl. "Now listen my dear, there is a heavily armed police force outside and they are going to storm the building any minute now, and if I am honest what I just did to save you was rather noisy, and we may have some of those bad men heading here," Frederick warned, removing the last of the rope, she then quickly removed the gag herself, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "So go hide at the back of the room until I come back or the police find you."

"Okay...be careful, Mister Vampire," she said, hurrying for a hiding spot.

"Vampires being real are kind of a secret, so don't tell anyone, or my master will punish me."

Her head peeked out from behind one of the bookcases. "I understand, but make sure you save us all," then she hid away again.

 _(Ba-bump)_

 _(Ba-bump)_

Fredrick could here two sets of heartbeats on the other side of the door that led into the main hall where the hostages were kept. The fact that they hadn't rushed in was telling. 'They must be waiting to ambush me when I go for the door.' Fredrick drew his guns and fired through the door from his current position. The two cultists that were standing behind it, were sent flying backwards as the bullets tore through them. As he heard them hit the floor, Fredrick kicked the door down, aiming and firing at the other nearby cultists, even before the wood hit the concrete floor.

No vampires were among those remaining around him.

"Who the hell are you?" one growled.

"Just an intruder," Fredrick grinned, and quickly dispatched the rest of them. Reloading, even as he dodged their gunfire, though most of them tried to flee, but they didn't get far.

There was still the matter of the vampire(s) inside the complex, as well as any other cultists, but the immediate area was clear, and the hostages were safe. He quickly counted them, they were all still alive.

"Who are you?" one demanded, hovering protectively next to the one who was shot.

"I'm with the police sent to recover you," Fredrick replied. "The girl they took is safe and hidden." They all visibly relaxed at his words. "You're all going to be okay now," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small two-way radio that Hans had given him, and contacted the many police waiting outside.

Soon after, the police stormed the building and retrieved the hostages, and then began a search of the perimeter for any more of the cultists.

"Good job, Vampire," Hans said with a faint smile.

"It's Fredrick Drake, do try to remember it."

"No promises."

They exchanged a brief grin.

"What of the vampires you sensed?" the Captain inquired.

 **"** They're hiding nearby," Fredrick replied. "It's only one as far as I'm aware, so this won't take long, I made sure to send your subordinates to other areas of the complex to search for other members of this cult."

"Happy hunting."

 **"** Why thank you," Fredrick replied with a wink and a saucy smile that made Hans slightly uncomfortable.

Fredrick quickly made his way to where the vampire was concealing themselves, and now that they were close, he could sense that this vampire was very young, probably hadn't been turned even a decade ago. He pulled out one of his gun's and pointed to the shadows. "I know that you're watching me, why don't you tell me why you've broken Council rules, and for a cult of all things. I imagine it's quite the story, why don't you tell me?"

In response, a young looking, blonde haired gentleman in a grey suit walked out of the darkness carrying a cane, his eyes burning crimson as he regarded Frederick with distaste.

"Why if it isn't Fredrick Drake, head of Security for the Vladimir family, so the Countess has you working for the humans now?" he asked with contempt. "How lovely that vampires and the Council are helping our food supply with their little problems."

Fredrick was quick to reply. "Whatever you might think, we are also part of society, we are not merely predators." He fired a single shot, which the other vampire dodged by casually side stepping. "I ask again before you die, what is your purpose here?"

The younger vampire frowned, a warning growl in his throat at Frederick's threat. "You think because you are under the service of the council that I am just going to reveal my personal business to you?"

"What is your name, boy?" Fredrick demanded.

The young Vampire glared. "It's Luke, and don't call me boy!" Luke had been barely into his adult years when he was turned, and he did not appreciate such slights. "As for your question, this cult worships vampires, they provide us food at the promise of being someday turned, unfortunately they caught the police's attention this time, and they send you, the Countess's attack dog."

"You said **us** , so there were other vampires present here, did they flee when I arrived?"

"They left because of the police presence, we are not ready to tussle with the many arms of the government, but the time will come when our kind rules and is worshiped as we should be!" Luke declared with pride.

"So I assume are you here to recover all the evidence that you are connected to the worshipers of Nyarlathotep, rather than the lie you just volunteered to me," Fredrick retorted, pulling out a scroll he had taken. "Though I suppose you might have also been using them as takeout menus."

Luke's eyes widened at the sight of the scroll.

"Besides, why worship that thing?" Fredrick mocked. "After all, I helped beat that abomination a century or so ago." He sought to unsettle his opponent, enrage him, as such opponents made mistakes, as he took no chances against another vampire. What he hadn't counted on was the speed of Luke's draw, it was a Magnum, he noted dimly, as several rounds tore through his head and chest. Thankfully the were not blessed rounds, as few outside the church could make them, Frederick collapsed in a puddle of his own blood, though not before firing several shots back, they missed, save for the last, which skimmed his left arm.

"You bastard!" Luke growled as the small wound began to steam with holy energy, it wasn't enough to kill a vampire, but the pain could be terrible. "You'll pay for this," he fired another shot as Fredrick tried to rise, sending him back into the floor. Luke quickly grabbed the scroll and ran, he returned briefly to the study, though he had to fire upon several of the police patrolling. Upon reaching the room, he stuffed any important scroll he could into a bag, and then set fire to the room, leaving the scrolls, books, research, and data that could implicate or be traced back to their masters, the ones who would replace the Council, the Royals, and Governments, and bring about the world that he and so many others desired. He had to escape and inform them and his fellows what had happened.

Running up the stairs, Luke fired upon two police officers who were guarding the main hall as he ran back for one of the exits.

'Shit!' Luke cursed as several bullets tore into him, they had the windows guarded. He booted one of them down, and went for the wall to jump, trusting his regeneration and strong legs. However snipers tore into him, wasting valuable blood and demonic power that he needed in order to heal. Fortunately none of the bullets contained blessed silver, but they were wearing them down.

'I can't fail!' Luke made a desperate dash for the main entrance, more police were waiting for him, bullets firing, this time however, Luke was ready for them. He tore the door from its hinges and hurled it into them, crashing several of them into the ground, creating a ramp and a path. Luke ran over the door and towards the gate, driven by the ingrained desire to please the ones who had turned him, those that sought the rule of the darkness. 'They won't stop me, not with this!'

Hans was among those firing, they had hit the man fleeing many times despite his speed, but his gait never waived. 'He must be the vampire,' the Captain thought as he fired off another shot. 'But where's Fredrick?'

Han's thoughts were then answered, as a single bullet passed by his head, and into that of Luke's, who was almost over the gate. The vampire's head turned to dust with that one shot, and the now headless corpse crashed to the floor, it too turning to dust, Hans looked on in amazement, having never seen a vampire die before.

"It needs to be blessed silver if you want to stop a vampire with a gun and a bullet, Captain." Hans turned back sharply to the speaker, and saw Fredrick with his own weapon in hand, however he was covered in blood, littered with bullet holes.

Immediately noticing Fredrick's wounds, Hans rushed over to give aid, but Fredrick waved him off. "You've been shot, are you okay?" A stupid question, but one that needed to be asked, it would be heartless not to inquire, but vampire blood could still be dangerous, even in small amounts.

"I'm fine...I will regenerate," Frederick replied, wincing as he holstered his weapon. The cultists he had drunk from hadn't been enough to fully heal his injuries, and even normally, Fredrick only drank the minimum to keep himself healthy, but it limited his regeneration speed somewhat. But long ago as Jack the Ripper, he had killed far too many people, and refused to drink directly outside of mission approved kills, usually subsisting on bagged blood unlike many vampires who still preferred the old ways. But the Countess had found him, turned him, saved him, trained him, and given him a purpose, and he would not waste life, he would save it. The fact that Luke had survived a minor wound from a blessed round, and many mundane bullets prior to the kill was mute evidence how much he, and likely his fellows drank, and how many victims that died.

"If you are sure?"

"I am, I need time to heal, escort me to my car please? So the others don't touch me," Fredrick asked.

"Is it dangerous, my blood can turn after all."

Hans paled slightly. "Very well, clear the way, clear the way!" waving off the several paramedics who tried to rush them.

Fredrick spotted the hostages, the girl included, and gave them a brief smile as he half-fell into the back seat of his car, or rather the one the clan provided for him, hopefully they wouldn't complain too much about blood on the leather. His driver, a human, but one in the Vladimir clan's employ, managed to convey a great deal of irritation with just his gaze in the rear view mirror. Fredrick closed the car door, but lowered the window as Hans had remained, wishing to thank him.

"Thank you for your help, Fredrick."

"It's quite alright, now I must be off," Fredrick replied. "Dawn is due, and sadly we are not safe company." He slumped down in his seat, needing his rest, fortunately he had several blood bags in the mini-fridge to aid his recovery.

Hans snorted in brief amusement, before returning to his subordinates. He still had a lot of work to do, along with reporting to his superiors, as well as demanding why they had arranged a vampire to assist of all things. 'Well, at least he was useful.' The ridiculously expensive car sped away as a faint light began to peek ever so slightly over the horizon, just in time, it seemed.

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 **CHAPTER** **END**

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 _Stay tuned for the next chapter, please review, share, and enjoy._

 _(Direct links to the full book are also available on my profile page.)_


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